demonheadmasterfandomcom-20200213-history
The Demon Headmaster (TV series)
The Demon Headmaster was a televsion series, made for CBBC, based on the children’s The Demon Headmaster books by Gillian Cross. The show ran twice weekly from January 1996 to January 1998. The first series contained six episodes, and aired twice weekly from 2 January to 18 January 1996, the second series contained seven episodes, and aired once a week from 25 September to 6 November 1996, and the third series contained six episodes, and aired twice weekly from 6 January to 22 January 1998. A notable fact from the TV series is that the only character who wear glasses of any kind is the Headmaster himself: he is only able to hypnotise people when he removes these. Relation to the books The television show was adapted from four of The Demon Headmaster novels by Gillian Cross. The first three episodes of series one were adapted from the first book, The Demon Headmaster, and episodes 4 - 6 were adapted from the second book in the series, The Demon Headmaster and the Prime Minister's Brain. The second series was adapted from The Demon Headmaster Strikes Again, and the third series is adapted from The Demon Headmaster Takes Over. Storyline Series One - The Demon Headmaster (Early 1996) First part (episode 1 - 3) Dinah Glass moves in with the Hunter family and starts going to the same school as her foster brothers Lloyd and Harvey. It's not easy, as they seem to hate her, and school is really strange. Pupils suddenly talk like robots and do weird things, even Dinah finds herself acting oddly. She's sure the headmaster has some kind of power over them, and is determined to find out more. But the Demon Headmaster is equally determined to stop her!. Second part (Episode 4 - 6) Octopus Dare is the new computer game at school - everyone's playing it. But only Dinah is any good at it. Soon all she can think about is Octopus Dare. She wins a place at the grand final, and she's over the moon. But there's something strange about it all that worries Dinah - so her friends come with her to the final. Before long they find themselves in trouble...facing their old enemy, the Demon Headmaster. Series Two - The Demon Headmaster Strikes Again (Late 1996) Dinah's father is headhunted for a new job at the Biogenetic Research Centre and who should be the Director, but the Demon Headmaster... This time is lust for power sees him meddling with evolution itself. The consequences of his evil schemes will be deadly if the SPLAT gang doesn't act and fast as The Demon Headmaster is in charge of a scientific research centre and has created an Evolution Accelerator, a machine to speed up the evolution process and produce the perfect human. But for this he needs Dinah's DNA, and then to put her into terrible danger to test his theories. Series Three - The Demon Headmaster Takes Over (1998) Dinah and her brothers are pretty sure they're rid of the Demon Headmaster once and for all. When people start dismantling the research centre Dinah contacts Professor Claudia Rowe, who's an expert on artificial intelligence. With Dinah's help she saves some of the precious materials and they become friends. Then weird things start to happen. Libraries start closing and their books are taken away. Telephones stop working, and there is no internet access. People start talking like robots, even Claudia Rowe and more and more of them seem to be wearing strange badges. It all adds up to one thing: the Demon Headmaster must be back. Dinah's search leads her to the university where she finds him developing a Hyperbrain, a computer with superhuman intelligence and deadly potential. Suddenly she's trapped. Is there any way to CBBC Pantomime - The Demon Headmaster Takes Over TV On 25 December 1997, CBBC showed The Demon Headmaster Takes Over TV, a recorded version of the CBBC Pantomime performed at the CBBC Big Bash in National Exhibition Centre, Birmingham that year. Whilst the main three series have been repeated several times on TV, this special was only shown once and has never been repeated. Release The first series was released on VHS on 5 January 1998, in which the series was re-edited into two 70-minute long episodes (Look Into My Eyes and The Prime Minister's Brain). The release can be watched on YouTube. Cast * Frances Amey as Dinah * Gunnar Cauthery as Lloyd * Thomas Szekeres as Harvey * Anthony Cumber as Ian * Kristy Bruce as Ingrid * Rachael Goodyer as Mandy * Tessa Peake-Jones as Mrs. Hunter * Terrence Hardiman as The Headmaster * Katey Crawford Kastin as Rose Carter